Another product of the Random Pairing Generator. The Stunticons find themselves captured - and the Autobots try to rehabilitate them. Smokescreen, however, has never been quite as honorable as the rest of the Autobots. Dub con, dark themes

A/N - Another product of the Random Pairing Generator. Prompt: Smokescreen/Drag Strip/In Hindsight. A drabblet that grew into a full-fledged ficlet.

x-xxx-x

In
hindsight, maybe Smokescreen wasn't the best person to attempt to
rehabilitate the captured Stunticons. He really wasn't a
professional, after all. He'd studied behavior patterns in order tocheat
people, not counsel them.

Drag Strip looked up as
Smokescreen walked in, settling across the table from the bound
Stunticon. Drag Strip sneered at him.

He'd picked Drag Strip
to work on when the command staff had ordered him to try to work with
the newly-captured Stunticons, hoping to sway the powerful-but-insane
fighters to their side. Who to start with was an easy choice –
Motormaster was psychotic, Wildrider and Breakdown would have to be
sedated before he could even talk to them, and Dead End...
Smokescreen didn't even know where to start with Dead End. His
experience reading people didn't help there – everything he knew
about people just screamed at him to stay away from Dead End. There
was few things in the universe quite as dangerous as someone who
didn't care whether he lived or died, especially one who hated your
guts.

Drag Strip showed some
promise, though. Smokescreen was good at seeing past masks; it was a
handy skill in a gambler. It was easy to see the fear and insecurity
lurking in Drag Strip's optics.

That didn't stop him
from being slagging irritating.

"What, afraid that I
might ruin your pretty paint-job if you didn't have me bound hand and
foot?"

Smokescreen regarded
the Stunticon in silence. Prime wouldn't like what he was planning,
but then, Prime didn't have to know how Smokescreen did what
he did. There were no security cameras in here – he'd insisted that
it be that way, despite Red Alert's protests about the risks to his
safety. He'd won out by pointing out to Optimus that he was more
likely to win their prisoners' trust if they didn't feel like they
were being watched constantly. If it also made it easier for
Smokescreen to keep his methods under the radar, that was just one
more benefit.

Drag Strip shifted
uncomfortably under Smokescreen's continued regard, growing more and
more nervous as the moments ticked by in silence.

"What, are you so
awed by my awesomeness that you can't think of anything to say?"

The smart-ass joke fell
flat, Smokescreen's expression never changing. His silence was
beginning to really bother the Stunticon. He wasn't used this sort of
treatment – his brothers would be insulting him back, or hitting
him for being annoying, or something. Even Dead End just
ignored him entirely, instead of just sitting there staring.

He was starting to
understand Breakdown a little better. He tried not to squirm under
that unrelenting stare, but it was hard.

"And what would I be
asking you?" Smokescreen spoke finally with a snort. "Frankly,
Drag Strip, you aren't important enough to know anything."

Drag Strip bristled.
"Slag off! I'm-"

"Don't bother,"
Smokescreen interrupted. "I don't care. You don't matter to us,
Drag Strip. You're not important enough or skilled enough for us to
try to convert you." Drag Strip opened his mouth to protest, but
Smokescreen continued without pause, ignoring him. "And you're not
a big enough threat for us to bother with the trouble of putting you
in a mind-prison."

Shocked, Drag Strip
stared blankly at him. Smokescreen stood and opened the door,
motioning to the pair of Autobots that were pulling guard duty.

Drag Strip twisted
around to stare after Smokescreen as the two Autobot guards walked
him back to the detention area, but Smokescreen walked away without
looking back.

x-x-x

Long
days of isolation and only the barest of contact with his jailers had
made a profound impact on Drag Strip's attitude. The only other
people Drag Strip had seen since that first interview were the
Autobots who wordlessly brought his energon, or escorted him to
Smokescreen.

The
first few times Drag Strip had been brought to Smokescreen's
makeshift interview room, he'd been belligerent and insulting.
Smokescreen had ignored him, using the time to finish paperwork or
read, not even acknowledging Drag Strip's existence. When Drag Strip
had retaliated by becoming louder and combative, fighting the
restraints and the Autobots sent to escort him, Smokescreen had
ordered him taken back to his cell and left there to stew in
solitude, where no matter how much he screamed, no one came.

Now
Drag Strip just sat quietly, resigned to the situation. Being ignored
was better than sitting alone in a cell, wondering if they'd
forgotten him, if this
time no one was going to come... He jerked, shoving that thought back
down.

So
it came as something of a surprise when a hand settled on his
shoulder, thumb stroking the side of his wheel. Startled, Drag Strip
looked up at Smokescreen.

The
Autobot watched him for a moment in silence. "It's nice to see
you've finally learned some manners," Smokescreen said finally.

Frag
you, was
the first thing that came to Drag Strip's mind, but he held the
retort back. Past experience told him that it would simply result in
another interview cut short and just that much more time alone in his
cell.

Drag
Strip froze. Part of him wanted to pull back, to shove the arrogant
Autobot away – but his hands were still bound together and chained
down. And part of him didn't want Smokescreen to stop at all.

But
slag it all – what gives him the right – he's a slagging Autobot!
Anger flowed through him, only to be dampened by a flicker of cold
reason.

Remember
where refusal got you before, Drag Strip. Besides, it's not any worse
than anything Motormaster's done to me, Drag
Strip rationalized, letting Smokescreen deepen the kiss. And...
and I don't want to be alone, he
admitted to himself miserably.

Shivering
in abject humiliation, Drag Strip leaned into the kiss.

x-x-x

"Smokescreen,
a moment, please," Optimus Prime said, catching the Datsun in the
hallway.

Giving
Optimus a curious look, Smokescreen followed him into his office.
"What's up, Prime?"

Smokescreen
nodded. "It is. Optimus, we're trying to change Drag Strip's entire
world view here – I have to teach him to trust me, and to accept me
as an authority figure. Otherwise, there's no chance of ever getting
through to him. The more people who speak to him, the greater the
chances that someone's going to say the wrong thing, or contradict
me, and undo all the progress I've made." He stopped, giving
Optimus his best earnest look. "I'm just starting to get him to
really open up, and I wouldn't have been able to do that if he had
the chance to talk to someone else. Keeping the outside contact to a
minimum helps him bond emotionally to the person trying to treat him.
It's the first step in getting him to trust us."

Optimus
nodded slowly, turning that over in his mind. "So he's responding
to your counseling?"

Yes,
he is, but not in the way you're thinking.
"He's starting to. We still have a long road ahead of us,"
Smokescreen told him gravely.

"But
the journey must start somewhere. Very well, keep it up, Smokescreen.
If we can reach even one of the Decepticons, we not only deprive
Megatron of a soldier, we gain a comrade."

If
only you knew...

x-x-x

Red
Alert turned the disk over in his fingers, deep in thought.

Smokescreen
should have known better,
he mused. For
all his vaunted skill in anticipating others, he should have realized
that I was not going to give in quite so easy.

He'd
been ordered to pull the cameras from Smokescreen's little
interrogation room, and he had – and then replaced them with hidden
ones. He'd seen every second of Smokescreen's 'sessions' with Drag
Strip. And while he usually took the stance that the Decepticons
deserved what they got, this was just... wrong. It was abuse just as
much as if Smokescreen had tortured him instead.

If
Optimus knew what Smokescreen was really doing, Smokescreen would
find himself in a cell right along with the Stunticons. But still...
Smokescreen was an Autobot, and Drag Strip was a vicious slagger of a
Decepticon. Did he deserve any better? Did anyone deserve that?

The
question is,
Red Alert thought, staring at the disk of damning video, what
do I do about it?

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